Civil Society Involvement in Monitoring Tbilisi City Hall

The project studied the enforcement of Georgia’s political priorities (youth and women empowerment, environmental protection) by the local public administration. Through policy-monitoring research, Mariam assessed the budget and strategic documents of the Tbilisi City Hall from the perspectives of gender equality, environmental mainstreaming, and youth participation. The project also aimed to scrutinize public administration performance, accessibility to public information, and transparency of electronic governance. To investigate the local agendas in-depth, she applied different methodologies (desk research, interviews and content analysis). To raise awareness of the local administration, recommendations were then shared with the relevant departments. 

The study produced a bilingual report researching the local agenda of the Tbilisi City Hall in terms of gender, youth, and environment. In retrospect, the project delivered significant tangible results in the field of environmental protection. To address the current climate challenges, Mariam recommended a list of transport regulations. Within two years after the fellowship completion, the Georgian Government introduced mandatory technical inspections on the personal vehicles. Thus, the local authority initiated a new transport policy and sustainable mobility program in compliance with her recommendations. The newly-initiated program promotes the sustainable and green development of the city. Therefore, all ongoing infrastructure projects have to follow the recommendations proposed by the international field-experts.

When given the opportunity by the EU-funded Eastern Partnership Civil Society Facility to replicate some of these achievements at a larger scale, Mariam initiated a regional action to research the local environmental agenda of six municipal administrations of Georgia (Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi) and Ukraine (Kyiv, Lviv, Kriviy Rig) in 2020. The regional project was implemented in collaboration with Bohdan Dyachenko (EaP Fellow from Ukraine) and Tea Turashvili (EaP Fellow from Georgia).

Report in English:

Report in Georgian: